Delilah is a 37 ton, 47 ft, Atlantic Right Whale, #1223.
She resides in the New Brunswick Museum expansion
located at Market Square, Saint John, New Brunswick.
Delilah washed up on Grand Manan in 1992, after an
untimely death from a collision with a vessel. She was
salvaged by Museum scientists to become one of many
cetacean specimens in its zoology collection and the
only full right whale skeleton on display in all Canada.
In order to get Delilah from Deep Cove on Grand Manan
to the Museum expansion in Saint John, Everett Dakin's
Construction Company carted her carcass by truck from
the Ingall's Head boat haul-out, down route 776, to
Anchorage Road, below Grand Harbour, where she was
buried until the flesh finally dropped from her bones.
After study and research, scientists put Delilah's bones
into a huge net in the ocean for eight more months until
they were clean and Museum personnel collected them.
During 1996, Delilah's skeleton was assembled in the
New Brunswick Museum Marine Mammal Gallery.
This is Delilah on the way to her interment in 1992:
Meet Calvin, Delilah's Calf, #2223
On February 2, 2001, a right whale, swimming with
a group of 10 to 15 other whales was singled out
because it was entangled in a dark green-blue rope.
She was later identified as the nine year old daughter
of Delilah who died in a ship strike in the Bay of
Fundy in 1992. In mid May of 2001, Calvin was
again sighted and the rope was still attached. The
Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) sent out a team
to attempt to cut the rope free. This turned out to
be too difficult with the whale rolling and diving
away from the rescue inflatable.
On April 2, 2002, another rescue attempt was made.
The rope was only loosely entangling the whale and
one end was dangling free from Calvin's mouth. The
loose line was the length of the whale and the rescue
crew was able to attach a buoy and a satellite/VHF
(Very High Frequency) tag to the end of the line.
~ Courtesy of the Center for Coastal Studies ~
In August of 2005, 13 year old Calvin turned up
in the Bay of Fundy with her own calf, thrilling
scientists who see the mammal as a symbol of
hope for the vanishing species.
~ Calvin ~
Calvin, once thought to be a male, showed up in
the feeding ground to the delight of researchers
who have tracked her difficult journey since birth
and feared the feisty creature wouldn't reproduce.
"She's a little bit of a poster child because she was a
little whale that we spent a lot of time looking for when
she disappeared right after her mother died," said Moira
Brown, of the New England Aquarium, about the whale
whose tragic start in life has spawned an international
movement to save the endangered population.
"To think that Calvin's been able to go through
all of this without full guidance from her mom
is pretty cool. She's pretty special."
Twenty-eight calves were born in 2005, the
second-highest annual birth rate in 25 years.
~ Courtesy of Canoe News ~
Grand Manan Whale & Seabird Research Station
Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada
